How Long Is “Dark Command”?

After his outstanding performance in John Ford's Stagecoach, John Wayne paired up with the other great director of westerns, Raoul Walsh, for this classic, at its time one of the most expensive westerns ever made. Wayne plays Bob Seton, the sheriff of Lawrence, Kansas, whose appointment angers the local schoolteacher William Cantrell. As the Civil War erupts, the townsfolk side with either the North or the South and a deeply embittered Cantrell allies himself to the South as a cover for his outlaw gang to pillage and intimidate those who support the North. And as his wife Mary (Claire Trevor) realises his true violent nature, Seton not only has to rescue her but save the town of Lawrence from being sacked by Cantrell under the guise of an act of war.